1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system of preserving unused time of a purchased session of on-demand entertainment where need arises to terminate the purchased entertainment session before the end of the session. More particularly, the present invention relates to method and computer apparatus for allowing unused time purchased in an on-demand entertainment system to be re-accessed for continued play of the entertainment at a later time.
2. Background and Related Art
On-demand entertainment sessions may be purchased for a variety of entertainment features. For example, on-demand entertainment for audio/video on-demand services may be purchased for current movies of predetermined/or known length sessions, music sessions of fixed length or video games of allotted time sessions. It is clear that other on-demand services may, as well, be purchased for a fixed or predetermined period of time. Such services have become prevalent in the transportations industry, particularly in the airline industry where in-flight entertainment systems allow pay-per-view movies to be purchased by individual passengers for view at the passengers' seat. Similarly, a passenger may purchase a music session or video game session of for a fixed or predetermined period of time.
One of the difficulties with such systems is that the length of the movie or game, for example, may be longer than the first segment of a multiple-segmented trip, or during the first leg of a round trip flight. In such instances, the passenger fails to view the entire movie or complete the entire game session and the remaining on-demand services purchased by the passenger are forfeited.
Such situation may be particularly annoying where the flight segment ends interrupting the movie at a particularly crucial point in a well-received movie or at a similar point in a multi-level video game. Given such, the passenger may elect not to purchase the on-demand service which tends to defeat the purpose of the service in the first place.